Queen of Hearts

Hey there everyone!  Hope your week has been going well!  Mine has been great, with the small exception of having to go to work. lol.

Question of the day - if I were independently, obscenely wealthy, would I really spend more time making art?  Hmmmm......think about it.  I would like to say yes, but I'm afraid the beach or mountain right outside my newly constructed and overstocked studio would distract me.  I digress.  That's what dreams are for.

Ok, the theme of the new challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group is .... making a custom epoxy embellishment from a memo pin.  Wendy featured this on her blog in June of 2010, and it's also featured in Making Art! Studio 490 Style, Book Three.

I decided to make an ATC resembling a Queen of Hearts from a deck of cards.  It does, kind of. lol.  See what you think...

I may have gotten a little carried away with coloring her cheek, (harlot! tart!) but otherwise I think she looks great. The background has so many layers on it, but it's mostly covered up now. lol. I started with Pool and Denim paint dabber, added some gold leafing, stamped with black archival, stamped with white paint, and also with cobalt archival. Whew!

If you notice, the epoxy embellishment is sticking out of her crown, I thought she might need some luck with #7. 

The flowers are treated with stormy sky and chipped sapphire distress stain, followed with a huge amount of Kiwi perfect pearl spray. LOVE this combo.  Hard to see in the photo, but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that Kiwi is my fave PP color.

Dots of gold on the hearts are with the Viva Pearl Pen in.... ah....Gold. lol.

I made some extra pin embellies while I was at it.  I mean, why not, when you have everything out. 

Since this has hearts on it, I'm also going to enter this in Hel's Sunday Stamper, which, coincidentally, is HEARTS. And I haven't entered that in eons. She might have forgotten who I am.  lol.
That's it for this installment, I'm off to reward myself with a fudge cookie.  Did I mention I'm trying to lose weight?  Thanks for stopping by....have a great weekend!

DENIED!!

Over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group, the current challenge is to make some HUMOROUS ART.  You know, funny stuff.  Gut splitting.  Laugh till milk comes out your nose.  That kind of funny.  Using at least one of Wendy's stamps.  Now, her recent releases have some pretty funny sayings on them, I think!

Being a number cruncher myself, in real life, an idea popped into my head, and here's the result:

LOL!  I had a great time making this.

Meet George, a stuffy IRS agent. He's saying my art is not tax deductible! WTH??  Can you imagine the audacity?

I had meant to grab some used adding machine tape from work, but of course, forgot as I was rushing out the door in my attempt to leave work as quickly as possible.  So, I just cut some copy paper, and remembered Wendy has a background stamp that is all numbers, and, voila! an adding machine tape.

All the stamps are Studio 490 of course.

The "DENIED" is from my awesome P-Touch labeler.  I freehanded the convo bubble. 

You might not find this a gut splitter, but come on, admit it, you at least chuckled a bit.

Thanks for stopping by, if you have any questions on how I did something, just email me or ask in a comment, and I'll get back to you..

Have a great weekend!

Fun with Stamp and Die Cut!

I needed to make a card.
Er, wasn't that the whole point of this paper, ink, and stamp thing to begin with?  I vaguely remember that.  I was going to save money by making my own cards. Yeah, that's it.

I had purchased this....

a while ago, and said to myself, "that's it, I'm getting this out of the package, TODAY, dag nab it."  I'm not sure if those were my exact words.  The only one around to witness it was Rocky, and he's not talkin'.
Anyhoo, I started fiddling around with this, one thing led to another, you know how it goes, and I ended up making a few more cards than the original ONE I was intending to make.  I'm no Jennifer McGuire or Shari Carroll, but I think they turned out pretty good.  Let's just say that any future recipients will probably like them.  I left an area on some of them blank so I can make the greeting fit the occasion at any given moment.  Now, I know I'm not supposed to critique my work, but I've listed some of my OBSERVATIONS about each card under the picture. You can agree or disagree with me, I really don't care, but I'm filing these in some small part of my memory that might be left, for future reference.

Placement - ok. Colors - good. Should have left color off of edge.

I really like this embossed background. Placement - so so, not the best. Colors - good

LOVE the paisley background. Placement-really good. The middle of the big flowers are dimensional, you just can't tell. I think this might be my fave.

Note-do not use the swirl embossing with these die cuts. Too much swirly crap going on. Placement - good, colors - love.

The inks I used were distress inks, of course.  Quite frankly, I don't know why I have any other ink pads, I use these almost exclusively anymore. Although I still like the Adirondack Earthtones.  Need to use them more.  So, there you have it, it was nice just to get stuff out and play around.  Note to self - do more of that. lol. Hope you had a good weekend, and I'll catch you later!
Thanks for stopping by!

So sorry....

..that I haven't been around.  I can't really explain it nor excuse it. I just haven't been into making anything or checking cyber world for anything new.  Burn out, perhaps.  I think I just needed a little break.  At any rate, that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking of you all, I really was. I just couldn't make myself get online once I was home from work. Well, enough of that.

So, we're back into challenges on the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group....I just listed the first one of this year today, and I actually made something for it ahead of time. gasp!  I decided I still wanted to try some of the techniques Tim had featured during the 12 tags of Christmas, only Wendified, so the challenge for the next two weeks is from Tag #2.... kraft resist, picket fence stain, and some sticky back canvas.  Here's what I came up with:

Another one, I just used different stamps in the background:

I don't normally have kraft paper around (I know, I'm behind the times. I'm trying not to buy more paper.... much) but I did break down and buy Tim's kraft resist pad when it was half price somewhere. And, not wanting to use Tim's design for a Wendy card, I just took a page and used the plain back side. Yes, clever wasn't it? snort

Then I just chose some Wendy stamps and stamped in black archival. Dried thoroughly, and stamped two stamps and clear embossed them, hence, the resist part.

I used sticky back canvas to stamp and cut out the flower, the scroll design is also SBC, I just used a Sizzix die.  Colored the SBC with distress stains, dried thoroughly. Some enamel accents, for, ah, accents. Ta da!

Actually, this was my second attempt at this... the first went into the garbage.  Here's a tip... don't overdo the background stamping, or the resist stamping. Trust me. Just pick a couple and go with it. Bolder stamps work better with the resist part, too.

So, there you have it!  It is a fun technique to try, I love what shade Pine Needles distress ink turns over the Picket Fence distress stain...a really cool shade of blue green. Love it.

Thanks for stopping by today!

THANKFUL for ART PARTS!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The challenge at the EWV Yahoo Group is using ART PARTS in an autumn/Thanksgiving theme.

I was in charge of desserts for the meal today, so after they were done, I had a little time to start the project, and just finished it, oh, about a half hour ago after we got home....

 My picture taking abilities seem to be getting worse instead of better.  Here's another angle...

So, details you say...

I used an art part base, residence, rectangle frame and leaf stem (the one on the left).

The base is covered with the recipe paper from Tim's seasonal paper stack, which I then stamped and sprayed with sunflower perfect pearls.

All the leaves were treated with Gold paint dabber, I pounced it on for texture, then swiped it with coffee archival to tone it down a bit.

All the stamping was done with Studio 490 stamps...OF course.

The roses...well, I decided to go with glassine paper, and used the alcohol ink tech on them that Wendy featured in a video on her blog...HERE....I used Gold and Copper AI mixative, Currant and Terra Cotta AI's. After I had inked the paper, I crumpled it up, flattened it out and swiped some Walnut Stain Distress Ink all over it, then cut out my flowers.

The Art Parts take Distress Stain like a dream.....that's what I used on the house. 

And, I went a little nuts with my Brown Viva Pearl Pen, but it's so fun, I couldn't stop. LOL!

Oh yes, in the window of the house, a SEASONAL SALVAGE STICKER from the Timinator, as is the AUTUMN on the bottom.

I haven't decided if I'm going to hang it, or frame it....hence, the unfinished look. 

Hope you had a great holiday, always good to get together with friends and family!

Thanks for stopping by!

Making Art! Challenge #31!

Helllllloooooooooo....

Over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group....(EWV for short)... the theme is TIME.  It had a two week deadline, and here I am, squeaking in under the wire. Well, I had it done and posted to the group on Monday, but I'm finally getting around to posting it here.
I chose the theme based on the fact that we just had to adjust our clocks backwards an hour. I hate that. It takes me at least a couple of weeks to get adjusted.  You wouldn't think an hour makes that big of a difference, but it does.  Not to mention the fact that you get up when it's dark, and you get home from work when it's dark. Makes you feel like you're a vampire, minus the thirst for blood. lol. Alright, enough pissing and moaning about that.

I decided to go with a JUMBO tag for this, you know, they're about 4 x 8 inches.  Sometimes a number 8 tag just won't do. Here we go....

Ahhh....all the stamps are Studio 490.  I'm sure you recognize the Weathered Clock die as the Timinator's.  As is the Regal Crest which the sentiment is stamped on.  I used black Crackle paint on the clock, then swiped some Viva Inka Gold over it.
The little charms hanging from the fibers at the top are Studio 490 stamps stamped on chipboard, inked and covered with about 2-3 layers of clear embossing powder.  Makes them look like little glass pieces, although it's hard to tell from the photo.
As for the background ink colors, I think I used Scattered Straw, Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters.  Yep, I'm pretty sure that's what I used.  Then I did the old "spray some water in your hand and drop it all over then blot it with a towel" technique, to give it that "I mistakenly left it out in the rain" look.

So, there you have it!  Thanks for stopping by, I know it's been a while! 
Go Be Creative!

I was amazed..

...to find out that my blog was still here...lol....

Hey all, how are you?  I've been a little busy...BUT...

I made a little time to put together a couple of things.

First, I was playing around for a few minutes before work one day, and .... two days later, (yes, I went to work, lol)  I kind of finished this tag...

I love using embossed resist for a background, really striking.  The flower is muslin dyed with distress stains, there's a grungepaper flower in between the base layer and the first muslin flower to give it some lift. Yep, still have to add some stuff to it, but that will probably be another three days.. at least. lol.

Then, on to the Making Art! Challenge for the EWV group... which is to use a sewing theme, and it's open for another week. Wow, I'm early.
I had some chipboard stickers by Melody Ross that I had received with an order, and being the sarcastic individual that I am....came up with this...

I MAKE STUFF........DEAL WITH IT!

All the stamps I used are Studio 490 (Wendy).  I thought they complimented the stickers quite nicely. he he.  Don't worry, I have quite a few of those stickers left on that sheet, and a lot of sarcasm left too, so you'll probably be seeing more of this.  Well, I can't disappoint you, now, can I? lol.
Thanks for stopping by and checkin' it out, as you can see, I'm still alive and well....ok, don't know about the well part...but...
Go Be Creative!